We are happy to report that undergraduate research assistant Neil Meyer began participating in the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Summer Research Program on July 31st, 2012. Neil joins a growing alumni of Levy Lab McNair Scholars; in the summer of 2010, Levy Lab alumnus Justin Meyer also participated in the McNair summer program, who is now a graduate student in Clinical Psychology at Texas A&M.

About the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program

The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program (also known as the McNair Scholars Program) is one of 180 such programs nationwide. First established in 1989 and named after Dr. Ronald E. McNair, this program is designed to help prepare talented undergraduates to enter graduate school and to receive their doctoral degree.

Who was Ronald E. McNair

Ronald McNair was an astronaut-physicist who died aboard the space shuttle Challenger. Dr. McNair's philosophy of life included the following statement,

"Whether or not you reach your goals in life depends entirely on how well you prepare for them and how badly you want them."

Dr. McNair prepared himself for his goals. He grew up in a poor, small town in South Carolina, attended North Carolina A&T as an undergraduate physics major, and enrolled at Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his graduate degrees in physics. Though the path to obtaining his goals was paved with many obstacles, Dr. McNair had the willingness and ability to persevere in the face of overwhelming odds and overcame the difficulties he encountered.

We are proud to report that Lab Manager Wes Scala, Associate Lab Manager Sharon Nelson, and former undergraduate Research Assistant Heather Close have been accepted into doctoral programs, within the highly-competitive field of Clinical Psychology.

Wes Scala will be working with our own Dr. Kenneth Levy, Associate Professor of the Pennsylvania State University. His research interests include attachment theory, personality disorders, and psychotherapy outcome and process research. He is also interested in the development and maintenance of mental representations and their role in psychopathology.

Sharon Nelson will work with mentor Dr. Steven K Huprich of Eastern Michigan University. Sharon's interests include TFP and how it compares to other psychotherapies, Psychotherapy outcome research, cultural influence on the effectiveness of various aspects of psychotherapy, and more broadly BPD and other personality disorders.

Heather Close will be working alongside her mentor, Dr. R. Rogers Kobak of the University of Delaware. Dr. Andrew's research focuses on "family and school factors that increase risk for anti-social and mood disorders among low-income adolescents."

"Out of all 8 Clinical Psychology graduate students who applied for internship this year, all 8 were successfully matched"

We would like to congratulate Joe Beeney and Bill Ellison for successfully matching to internships in clinical psychology! Joe will be working with the Western Psychiatric Institute, and Bill will be working with the Massachusetts Mental Health Center/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School.

In fact, the entire department did well; out of all 8 clinical psychology graduate students who applied for internship this year, all 8 were successfully matched.

"This award ... recognizes high quality contributions to the humanities and the social sciences"

Joseph Beeney was awarded the 2011-2012 College of Raymond Lombra Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research in the Social Science for his forthcoming article entitled “I feel your pain: Emotional closeness modulates neural responses to empathically experienced rejection."

We are all very proud of Joe, and are confident that his future endeavors will result in future successes! The award was presented on March 24th, 2012. A program from the event can be obtained here.

More about the award from Penn State's College of Liberal Arts website:

This award has been named in honor of Ray Lombra’s 18 years of service as an Associate Dean in the College and recognizes high quality contributions to the humanities and the social sciences by enrolled graduate students working toward their advanced degrees. Two awards are made each year--one in the humanities and one in the social sciences--for the best article or book published or forthcoming by a graduate student registered in the College.

Dr. Levy was interviewed and subsequently featured In the December, 2011 issue of Men's Health magazine. The article pertained to his work on his Sex & Jealousy study. Most of the article can be read on our website by clicking here (Instructions: After clicking on the first picture in the set, use the left and right buttons on the screen--or the arrow keys on your keyboard--to go through the clips in the proper order).

We would like to congratulate Neil Meyer for being awarded the Bunton-Waller Scholarship from Penn State! Here is a brief description of the award from Penn State's website:

The Bunton-Waller Scholarship is awarded to students accepted into The Pennsylvania State University. They must demonstrate high academic achievement as well as financial need to be eligible for the award. Underrepresented minorities and students who offer geographic diversity to the student body are given priority consideration.

Lauren Leight holds out a wand as Annie Weber blows bubbles during the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon on Saturday February 18, 2012. Leight and Weber are a dancing pair for the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Abby Drey CENTRE DAILY TIMES.

Today (10/19/2011) marks the first day that we have launched the new website! To see photos of the old website, you can go to the photographs section, or click here! This post allows comments, so site members, you can feel free to let us know what you think!

Dr. Levy was named Program Chair this year at the 2011 annual SEPI (Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration) conference, which was held in Washington DC, USA, from May 19-22, 2011. The theme or title of the conference was: "Crossing the Divide: SEPI’s Unique Place in Bridging the Science-Practice Gap.”